Victor Tawara

Peru on a banana plantation until he and his family were taken to an internment camp in

Crystal City, Texas in 1944 during World War II. They remained there until 1946. At the end of

the war, he and his family moved to Seabrook Farm, New Jersey, and worked at the farm until

moving to Denver, Colorado in 1948. There he met and married Taeko Yamashita in 1949.

Together they had five daughters who they raised at Bonsai Nursery, Inc. in Sheridan,

Colorado. Victor was a landscape architect and nurseryman from 1960 when he and Taeko

started the nursery. He sold the business in 1977 and moved to Fort Collins, Colorado where

he continued as a nurseryman and established T&M Tree Farm, Inc., a wholesale tree farm on

eighty acres. He grew ornamental, shade, fruit and evergreen trees. He also built a beautiful

home on the farm, where he and Taeko lived until she passed in 1999. Victor culminated his

successful career by designing and building Mountain Vista Greens golf course next to the tree

farm in 1992. Other accomplishments during his career included two patents, one for a tree

ball carrier and the other for a Christmas tree stand. He also grafted and created the first

Tawara pear, which was later introduced to and patented by Bailey Nurseries, Inc. It is now

sold commercially nationwide. Victor remarried in 2001 to Naoko Kurotobi, and together they

moved to Henderson, Nevada, where he and Naoko lived until he passed on January 5, 2021.

His favorite pastimes included fishing, hunting, golfing, gardening, cooking, baking and

traveling to Hawaii and Mexico. Victor is survived by his wife, Naoko; his sister, Sumi; seven

children: Diane (Al), Jeanne (Jim), Vicki (Timm), Bonnie (Brian), Lonnie (Don), Ernie (Lily) and

Sandy; ten grandchildren: Brad, Tina, Jami, Darci, Mindy, Amy, Jeremy, Corey, Chad and

Grant; twelve great-grandchildren: Christopher, Victor, Daryan, Braylon, Taeko, Keegan, Wyatt,

Ava, Navi, Colton, Linkin and Korbyn; one great-great-grandson: Liam; and 17 nieces and

nephews.